Magnetic feeders are used for feeding various magnetic components such as electrical and electronic components. For example, a magnetic feeder may be used to feed diodes or resistors to appropriate equipment for testing and/or marking. Of course, for a component to be fed, it must be magnetic, i.e. include magnetic material. For example, in the case of diodes, the leads are typically constructed at least in part of ferromagnetic material.
In a typical prior art magnetic feeder, the components are magnetically suspended and then nonmagnetically moved. For example, in the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,438, the components are moved by gravity. Similarly, in the feeder shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,120,890, the components are moved by gravity after the magnetic suspending force on the components is removed.
In the prior art magnetic feeder shown in British Pat. No. 1,141,753, the components are moved by a vibrating table and by reversing the direction of current in control coils. The vibrating table increases the cost and complexity of this feeder. In addition, the current reversal, particularly when coupled with the action of the vibrating table, would not result in smoothly moving the components.
All of the above-noted prior art magnetic feeders have a common problem. Although a magnetic feeder is adapted to magnetically suspend the magnetic components in generally parallel relationship, inherently some of the components become disoriented and nonparallel relative to the other parts. For example, when diodes are fed, the leads of some of them may assume a crisscross relationship. Prior art devices have no special ability to resolve this problem.